Get Transcript Are the TaylorMade Qi35 Irons Worth the Hype? (Honest Review)

Have you ever looked at your 5-iron and thought: “You’re not the problem, I’m just trash”, right before chunking it 40 meters short again?

That’s exactly who the TaylorMade Qi35 irons are made for. These are full-on game improvement irons, built to be the most forgiving irons in TaylorMade’s lineup.

They come with a pretty bold promise of more distance, more height, and more consistency across the whole set for about $999.99. Let's see if they deliver!

Key Takeaways

If you don’t feel like reading about every single shot and skull, here’s the quick rundown:

• Distance is crazy, especially in the mid and long irons. We’re talking 5-iron numbers that look like small fairway wood shots.
• Forgiveness is great, off-center strikes still fly, and dispersion tightens up compared to normal “player” irons.
• Wedges are playable but “set-wedgey”, they are solid on full shots, but not as sexy as proper specialist wedges around the green.
• Feel is hot, they are more of a rocket-launcher than buttery forged blade, but very satisfying when you catch the middle.
• You’ll probably need to adjust your gapping because distances jump so much that your old yardage chart is basically useless.

If you like watching reviews in video format, the full TaylorMade Qi35 irons review is up on our YouTube channel as well.

First Impressions

Out of the box, the Qi35 irons look exactly like what you would expect, modern, forgiving, and built to launch.

The heads are on the chunkier side, but not offensively so. At address, they actually sit pretty clean, especially in the mid irons. A few things stood out right away:

• You can feel the center of gravity drop as you go up the set, which is supposed to help launch long irons higher while keeping wedges more controllable.
• The design on the back, with the carbon section and sculpted cavity, gives them that modern “techy” look without going full spaceship.

And if you want the bigger picture beyond irons, we tested the whole lineup too, here’s our TaylorMade Qi full set review. 

Sand Wedge

We kicked things off with the sand wedge. Arvo was expecting it to feel like a clunky add-on to the set, but it actually performed better than expected:

• Ball flight was very high, almost comically so at times.
• Spin numbers were solid for a sand wedge.
• Even when the strike wasn’t perfect, the ball still did what it was supposed to do.

Carl is usually a “proper wedge only” guy and doesn’t love playing wedges that come with the set. But even he said that it felt pretty decent.

Around the green, you’d still probably want more specialist wedges, but for stock approaches, this sand wedge is more than usable.

8-Iron

The 8-iron is where things started getting a little crazy.

Arvo’s usual 8-iron distance is around 140–150 meters. With the Qi35?

• One of the clean strikes flew around 180 meters.
• Launch was high, carry was big, and the ball just wanted to go.

Carl didn’t catch all of his perfectly, so his distances were as per usual but he really noticed that the irons were easy to launch and surprisingly stable through impact.

5-Iron

Then came the 5-iron, and this is where game improvement irons really show their teeth. Arvo’s regular 5-iron is usually 175–180 meters but with the Qi35 5-iron:

• He sent one out to around 220–225 meters.
• Yes, it was left. No, we’re not here to talk about dispersion on that shot.
• But the raw distance potential is crazy.

Carl followed up and saw his own distance bump as well:

• His usual 5-iron is also in the 175–180 meter range.
• The Qi35 pushed his numbers up while still feeling easy to swing.

Even on a chunky heel strike, the ball still carried respectable distance, which is kind of the whole point of game improvement irons.

TaylorMade Qi35 Irons vs Ping G430 Irons

We couldn’t just test the Qi35 irons in a vacuum, so we brought in a familiar benchmark: the Ping G430 irons. The comparison was done with 7-irons, shot-for-shot.

For Arvo, the Qi35 7-iron was carrying around 180 meters with spin sitting near 5.5k on a good strike.

For Carl, it was a similar story: the Qi35 was usually longer, while the Ping felt a touch softer but not clearly better.

Valderrama on the Trackman Simulator

We loaded up Real Club Valderrama in the sim, a course we actually love in real life, and stepped onto the first tee feeling way too confident.

But the reality was that we both walked off with triple bogeys. The irons weren’t the problem. Even when the swings got a bit wild, the Qi35s kept the ball flight stable.

Bad swings still ended up in “playable-ish” spots more often than they deserved… but they’re not magic. You can absolutely still rope one into the trees if your swing is trash.

Longest Skull Challenge

To finish, we ran a classic Bogey Book special (the Longest Skull Challenge). The rules were simple:

1. Try to intentionally blade the ball
2. Keep it in the grid
3. Hit it as far as you can

The thing is, it was actually harder than usual to hit a proper skull with the Qi35s.
Even when we tried to blade it, the club still wanted to launch the ball in the air instead of keeping it knee-high.

Pros & Cons of the TaylorMade Qi35 Irons

✅ Pros

• Huge distance gains, especially in the long irons
• Very forgiving on mishits (both toe and heel)
• Easy to launch high and keep in the air
• Modern, confidence-inspiring look at address
• Ideal for amateur golfers who want to make the game easier, not harder

❌ Cons

• Distance gains mean you’ll probably need to re-learn your yardages
• Wedges feel more like set wedges than premium scoring tools
• Feel is more hot and springy than classic forged softness
• Better players may find them a bit too “helpful” and less workable

Final Thoughts

From our perspective as amateur golfers, the TaylorMade Qi35 irons absolutely deliver on what they promise.

They’re long, forgiving, easy to launch, and genuinely fun to hit. At around $1,000 for the set, they’re not the cheapest thing in the market.

But if you’re planning to play golf long-term and you want more distance and more consistency without grinding for three years on your swing, they’re a very solid investment.

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